Schumer pushes to extend mass-transit tax benefits

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer plans to introduce legislation to extend the temporary federal tax benefit for mass transit use at $245 a month through 2014.

The transit benefit, allowing employers and employees to use pretax money to cover part of the cost of the trip to work, was raised from $125 a month as part of the 2009 economic stimulus bill to create parity with the parking benefit.

The measure was renewed another two years after it expired in 2011 and now is set to expire again Dec. 31.

Schumer said he will seek to extend transit parity in a group of tax provisions known as the “extenders package” that Congress usually approves in November or December.

Efforts to make transit and parking benefits equal on a permanent basis have been resisted by some lawmakers on the grounds that not all taxpayers have access to mass transit.